Dana White has high hopes for UFC 155 – thanks to the weather

LAS VEGAS – Dana White might have high hopes for Saturday’s UFC 155 card in terms of viewership, and he may have Mother Nature to thank for it.

UFC 155 takes place at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, and as the promotion’s traditional year-end pay-per-view it has big expectations, as well.

White and UFC officials on Thursday said ticket sales already had exceeded 10,000. But when it comes to pay-per-view buys, White isn’t quite as certain, despite the card being headlined by a heavyweight title fight between champion Junior Dos Santos (15-1 MMA, 9-0 UFC) and Cain Velasquez (10-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC).

The one certainty White said he can count on with pay-per-view sales is welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre.

“I never know how they’re going to do,” White said. “With GSP, I don’t have to worry or guess what he’s going to do. I know what he’s going to do. This is one of those fights around the holidays (that could do anything).”

But where White believes the UFC may have some well-timed good fortune is in the weather department.

Large sections of the Northeast and Midwest have been hit by early-winter snowstorms, and that could wind up benefitting UFC 155’s bottom line.

“The one thing I do like, unfortunately for all the people on the East Coast and Midwest – there’s a massive snowstorm,” White said through a grin. “They’re shutting down flights, people can’t travel. So I like when people are snowed in. That’s good for me.”

The UFC’s most recent year-end card at MGM Grand Garden Arena, UFC 141 a year ago, did a reported pay-per-view buyrate of 750,000. That was a return to glory of sorts for the promotion after significantly lower numbers for UFC 125 (Jan. 1, 2011) and UFC 108 (Jan. 2, 2010). UFC 92 in December 2009 did a reported 1 million buys.

UFC 155’s main card airs on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET followed by prelims on FX (8 p.m.) and Facebook (6:35 p.m.).